The main area of application of the present invention is the transfer of pieces of luggage in the conveyance of passengers. National and international air traffic demands a particularly rapid and careful treatment of individual pieces of luggage. In order to cope with the rising volume of luggage resulting from ever-increasing air traffic, airport operators are keen to explore and subsequently also to exploit all possibilities for streamlining and optimizing flight luggage logistics. For this purpose, they seek to increase the throughput of existing luggage distribution regions and also the productivity of staff working therein. In airport luggage distribution regions, the basic activities of transporting, identifying and sorting pieces of luggage are nowadays already automated for the most part. In contrast thereto, loading auxiliary means, such as containers or transport trolleys, are in practice currently still loaded and unloaded with pieces of luggage entirely by hand. The main reason for this is the broad range of pieces of luggage which are to be transported and are generally composed of what is known as normal luggage and special luggage (bulky luggage). The normal luggage region at airports will be examined hereinafter by way of example. The term “normal luggage” refers for example to containers such as suitcases, bags, rucksacks, cardboard boxes and so on. The container itself can be made of metal, leather, any type of woven fabric, plastics material, wood, cardboard or similar materials. Normal luggage generally weighs between 2 kg and 50 kg at an average weight of approx. 18 kg. The dimensions of normal luggage are 20 cm to 100 cm in length, 10 cm to 50 cm in height and 10 cm to 70 cm in width. In the past, the different materials and also the differing rigidity of the individual pieces of luggage have prevented reliable automatic loading and unloading. However, manual loading and unloading of pieces of luggage forms a bottleneck in the throughout of the distribution of luggage at airports. In addition, it increases costs and has a harmful effect on the health of the staff working therein. An attempted solution for the handling of pieces of luggage in the processing of luggage at airports is known from IE 100 15 778 A1. In this case, a specific treatment of a dolly is proposed for unloading or transferring pieces of luggage which are arranged in containers, known as ULDs (=unitized load devices), the containers being transported by means of trailers, referred to as dollies, and brought to a luggage conveying facility, where the dolly is arranged with the container loaded with luggage and/or cargo in each case laterally at a distance next to a conveying belt pertaining to the luggage conveying facility; from this, the pieces of luggage are conveyed onward to a conveying belt, for example. Claim 1 of said document claims that the dolly is brought directly up to an unloading apparatus, that the dolly is aligned with a loading station and that the container, after reaching the loading station, is secured thereto and that the container is tilted in the direction of conveyance, so that the pieces of luggage located therein slip in a gravity-dependent manner in the tilting direction onto an adjoining conveying belt which pertains to the luggage conveying facility and via which they are conveyed to the luggage reclaim. Although such a process of the more less controlled tipping of the pieces of luggage does not require staff to transfer or pick up the pieces of luggage, other staff are needed in order to move the dolly exactly to the respective point of the conveying belt and also to make sure that no pieces of luggage fall beyond the conveying belt. In addition, staff are required in order to uncouple the trailers from the overall train of trailers, in each case after the loading station is reached, before the tilting process is initiated.
A further apparatus for handling articles, in particular nieces of luggage, with a carrying arm which is freely movable in at least two axes and is articulated to a central unit positioned at the end of a conveying track for articles, in particular a conveying belt, the movement of the carrying arm being controlled in a predefinable manner, is known from DE 100 35 810 A1. The characterizing part of claim 1 of said document seeks protection for the fact that a loading apparatus, which has a carrying platform for receiving articles, in particular pieces of luggage, and a respective rearward and lateral delimitation against which the respectively received article is placed, is arranged at the free end of the carrying arm and that an unloading apparatus is provided that removes the received article from the carrying platform. According to the further details in said document, the carrying platform is in this case embodied in such a way that a foldable delimitation, which is lowered in the carrying platform, is selectively provided at the left or the right side, the movement of the unloading apparatus being coordinated with the movement of the carrying arm and thus of the carrying platform. However, DE 100 35 810 A1 does not disclose how the respective pieces of luggage reach the carrying platform.
Furthermore, an apparatus for gripping luggage, in which pieces of luggage can be raised and conveyed onward either using a, vacuum-actuated, gripping apparatus or by means of a mechanical gripping mechanism, is known from EP 0 841 297 A1. The gripping apparatus or the gripping mechanism is in this case actuated by hand. Automatic gripping of the pieces of luggage is not provided.
Furthermore, a method for loading a container for piece goods with piece goods, which are delivered by a conveyor, by means of an automated handling apparatus which has on an arm on one side a transporting means provided with a support means for the piece goods, is known from DE 10 2005 022 828 A1. According to claim in this method, the piece goods are each moved from a conveyor to the support means which is opened in the process. The piece goods, resting on the support means, are then transferred in a container to a determinable destination where the piece goods are inserted automatically, the support means being extracted, at least for the most Part, from the transporting means, which remains before the destination, under the piece goods. In this case, the handling apparatus is used as a multiaxial robot and the transporting apparatus is embodied as a hand of the robot (claim 2). Furthermore, the conveyor is embodied as a conveying belt from which piece goods are pushed onto the support means by means of a push or pull apparatus (claim 3). In addition, proximity sensors and a camera are used in this known method for monitoring the operation. The support means is embodied in this case as a telescopically extendable and retractable rectangular platform. However, this method merely allows containers to be filled with piece goods. DE 10 2005 022 828 A1 does not disclose how a container which is already loaded with piece goods configured in a broad range of manners and has a lateral opening can be automatically unloaded.
A method for the automated conveying, sorting and loading of pieces of luggage in airport facilities which have a luggage conveying facility which conveys the luggage from a check-in region to a luggage hall, from where it is loaded into airplanes, is known from DE 199 34 095 A1. This method is distinguished in that the relevant data of each piece of luggage are collected substantially in a first step, these data are input into a computer system in a second step, brought to the loading station in accordance with the respective flight destination in a third step, and automatically loaded into loading means with the aid of robots and gripping tools and/or mechanical loading apparatuses in a fourth step. However, DE 199 34 095 A1 does not disclose how the corresponding automated loading tools (claim 12) are configured.
In addition, a vacuum gripping system for gripping an object and a handling apparatus for handling an object with the aid of a vacuum gripping system are known from DE 199 59 285 A1. The starting point for this is a prior art in which the vacuum gripping system (10) has a basic member (18) and at least two suction units (19, 20) which are arranged at right angles to each other and on the basic member (18) and each have at least one suction gripper (21, 22), at least one of the suction units (19) gripping the or each object (11a) to be gripped from above and at least one of the suction units (20) gripping the or each object (11a to be gripped from one side. This vacuum gripping system seeks to achieve the object of being configured and developed in such a way that it can be used to grip without difficulty objects having different dimensions and that the vacuum gripping system can at the same time securely and reliably hold the gripped object. This object is achieved in that the suction units (19, 20) are arranged on the basic member (18) in such a way that, for gripping the at least one object (11a), the distance between the or each suction unit (19) on the upper side of the or each object (11a) and the or each suction unit (20) on the side of the or each object (11a) is variable. As is apparent from the figures and the text part of DE 199 59 285 A1, objects to be handled substantially are cubic bodies which stack up on pallets. In addition, in order to handle predominantly objects of this type, the starting point is also a prior art in which two suction units are arranged substantially fixedly at right angles; this greatly facilitates the handling of cubic bodies, as these also display only right angles. That aside, a substantial part of said document is determined by the configuration of an undergripper (25) which may preferably be used in the handling of smooth cubic bodies, but cannot be used in the handling of a broad range of pieces of luggage and is more of a hindrance than a help. This known vacuum gripping system is obviously not suitable for handling differently configured pieces of luggage, most of which are not smooth cubic bodies but rather rough, uneven containers made of a broad range of materials.
Furthermore, a method for operating a reduced pressure handling means in combination with a programmable controller which can be connected to a machine controller and in which, substantially in a first switching state of the programmable controller (38), the control valve (44) in the gripper module (20) is closed and the reduced pressure in the reduced pressure line (30) leading to the control valve (44) is detected by means of a pressure sensor (78) in the reduced pressure generator (28), is known from DE 10 2004 042 825 B3. This method is intended substantially to achieve the object of proposing a reduced pressure handling apparatus which can be used to grip and raise articles in a simple, safe and rapid manner, wherein reduced pressure is not to be consumed unnecessarily and failure of a component can be promptly detected. Encouragement to remove different pieces of luggage from a container may not be inferred from said document.